The best defense is a good offense, offense, in this case, being to transmit the culture and values that have underpinned Western economic and political dominance to the Muslim world. That means promoting democracy, limited government, human rights, and free markets to a region of the world where they have been essentially nonexistent for the last millennium. And, even then, I'm not sure it's possible to do effectively. I just think it's the only policy that has any chance of succeeding.The only little problem here is that one of the hits we take turning our cheeks in the warm-ups may put us down so we can't get back up. And that would include my family that I love so dearly.
Whether we'll actually even attempt to do so, and do so consistently, over the long term—is an open question. In the current political climate of America, I doubt it. And the only thing that will change the political climate is, I think, another—or perhaps more than one—terrorist attack. And a truly horrific one.
As I've related before, back in the early days after 9/11, Sci-Fi author John Ringo predicted that America would pull together for a while, but would soon fall back to squabbling, until there was another terrorist attack, at which point the cycle would start all over again. He predicted the cycle would repeat until the patience of the electorate snapped, and we went to full-scale war with the Muslim world.
Apparently, he was right. Maybe that's what it will take for the current generation of Americans to learn what our grandparents learned to their dismay in the 1930s: that liberty must be defended, and that our society, for all its faults, is far, far better than anything that is available to replace it.
So, you know what? To that end, I'm perfectly prepared to let the Left have its way.
I'll make a deal with the Left: You wanna impeach President Bush? Go ahead. Knock yourself out. In fact, let's just go to the polls and turn the whole government over to the Democrats. You wanna run the whole show? Fine. Elect Howard Dean President. End all surveillance against possible enemy combatants, unless you can get a warrant based on probable cause. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. Permanently kill the PATRIOT Act. Do whatever you want to do. I'm perfectly willing, at this point, to do it your way.
I mean, really, what's the worst that can happen? An American city goes up in nuclear fire? Well, it'll probably be New York, Chicago, or LA. You know, a major city. I don't live there, nor do most Americans. So we'll be fine.
But here's the other half of the deal: If that happens, we get to march on Washington, drag you naked and screaming from your offices, and hang you from the ornate lampposts that line The Mall. Then, free from roadblocks thrown up by infantile political fools, maybe we'll get serious about defending the United States, her people, her freedoms, and her values, in an increasingly hostile world.
Frick.
RTWT. Period.
Posts
